Professor John Harrington
Professor of Law
- HarringtonJ3@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29208 74098
- Law Building, Room 2.09, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
Overview
John Harrington is Director of the ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Partnership and Professor of Global Health Law at Cardiff School of Law and Politics. He co-directs Cardiff Law and Global Justice, a research centre of Cardiff University.
Publication
2023
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2023. National Identities in Global Health. Kenya's Vaccine Diplomacy During COVID-19. African Affairs 122(488)
- Harrington, J. 2023. Between nation and empire: How the state matters in global health. Legal Studies (10.1017/lst.2022.48)
2022
- Kimani-Murage, E. W., Osogo, D., Nyamasege, C. K., Igonya, E. K., Ngira, D. O. and Harrington, J. 2022. COVID- 19 and human right to food: Lived experiences of the urban poor in Kenya with the impacts of government’s response measures: A participatory qualitative study. BMC Public Health 22, article number: 1399. (10.1186/s12889-022-13638-3)
- Harrington, J. 2022. 'In my own village' chronotopes, governmentality and the changing regulation of traditional medicine in Kenya. In: Adelman, S. and Paliwala, A. eds. Beyond Law and Development: Resistance, Empowerment and Social Injustice. Routledge, pp. 257-277.
- Harrington, J. 2022. 'Bio-Imperialism. Disease, Terror and the Construction of National Fragility' by Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis [Book Review]. New Genetics and Society 41(2), pp. 176-178. (10.1080/14636778.2021.1997579)
2021
- Harrington, J., Hughes-Moore, B. and Thomas, E. 2021. Towards a Welsh health law: devolution, divergence and values. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 72(S1)
- Harrington, J. 2021. Indicators, security, and sovereignty during Covid-19 in the Global South. International Journal of Law in Context 17(SI2), pp. 249-260. (10.1017/S1744552321000318)
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2021. Vaccine diplomacy and the agency of African States: what can we learn from Kenya?. [Online]. Nairobi, Kenya: IFRA. Available at: https://mambo.hypotheses.org/3158
- Harrington, J. 2021. ‘Choking the national demos’: research partnerships and the material constitution of global health. International Journal of Law in Context 17(S1), pp. 122-127. (10.1017/S1744552321000069)
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2021. Is Kenya ready? Human rights, COVID-19 and vaccine preparedness. [Online]. africanarguments.org: Royal African Society. Available at: https://africanarguments.org/2021/02/how-prepared-is-kenya-to-roll-out-covid-19-vaccines/
- Harrington, J., Thomas, E. and Hughes-Moore, B. 2021. Is there a Welsh health law? Values, divergence and devolution after COVID-19. [Online]. ukconstitutionallaw.org: United Kingdom Constitutional Law Association. Available at: https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2021/01/25/john-harrington-erin-thomas-and-barbara-hughes-moore-is-there-a-welsh-health-law-values-divergence-and-devolution-after-covid-19/
- Harrington, J., Deacon, H. and Munyi, P. 2021. Sovereignty and development: law and the politics of traditional knowledge in Kenya. Critical African Studies 13(1), pp. 95-114. (10.1080/21681392.2021.1884108)
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2021. Global health, COVID-19 and the state in East Africa. Irish Studies in International Affairs 32(1), pp. 1-19. (10.3318/isia.2021.32.07)
2020
- Nelken, D., Siems, M., Infantino, M., Genicot, N., Restrepo Amariles, D. and Harrington, J. A. 2020. Indicators, security and sovereignty during COVID-19 in the global south. Available at: https://cadmus.eui.eu//handle/1814/68835
- Harrington, J. and Sekalala, S. 2020. Communicable diseases, health security and human rights: From AIDS to Ebola. In: Gostin, L. and Meier, B. M. eds. Foundations of Global Health and Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Harrington, J. 2020. #Weareone: blood donation and dreams of inclusion in Kenya. Africa 90, pp. 112-131. (10.1017/S0001972019000962)
2019
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2019. 'Africa needs many lawyers trained for the need of their peoples': Struggles over legal education in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana. American Journal of Legal History 59(2), pp. 149-177. (10.1093/ajlh/njz004)
- Harrington, J., Series, L. and Ruck-Keene, A. 2019. Law and rhetoric: Critical possibilities. Journal of Law and Society 46(2), pp. 302-327. (10.1111/jols.12156)
2018
- Harrington, J. 2018. 'We can't wait for the bugs to spread': Rhetorics of time, space and biosecurity in global health law. Transnational Legal Theory 9(2), pp. 85-109. (10.1080/20414005.2018.1557395)
- Harrington, J. 2018. Governing traditional medicine in Kenya: Problematization and the role of the constitution. African Studies 77(2), pp. 223-239. (10.1080/00020184.2018.1452856)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2018. Judicial review and the future of UK development assistance: on the application of O v Secretary of State for International Development (2014). Legal Studies 38(2), pp. 320-335. (10.1017/lst.2018.4)
- Harrington, J. 2018. The time and place of rhetoric: a response. Law and Humanities 12(1), pp. 111-115. (10.1080/17521483.2018.1462293)
2017
- Manji, A. and Harrington, J. 2017. The limits of socio-legal radicalism: social and legal studies and third world scholarship. Social and Legal Studies 26(6), pp. 700-715. (10.1177/0964663917729874)
2016
- Harrington, J. 2016. Towards a rhetoric of medical law. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
- Manji, A. and Harrington, J. 2016. Public interest litigation, social justice and the life of Pushpa Kapila Hingorani: an interview with Aman Hingorani. Feminist Legal Studies
2015
- Harrington, J. 2015. Time and space in medical law: Building on Valverde's Chronotopes of Law. Feminist Legal Studies 23(3), pp. 361-367. (10.1007/s10691-015-9295-3)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2015. Restoring Leviathan? The Kenyan Supreme Court, constitutional transformation, and the presidential election of 2013. Journal of Eastern African Studies 9(2), pp. 175-192.
- Harrington, J. 2015. Traditional medicine and the law in Kenya. In: McHale, J. V. and Gale, N. eds. Routledge Handbook on Law and Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Routledge, pp. 180-201.
2014
- Harrington, J. 2014. Of paradox and plausibility: the dynamic of change in medical law. Medical Law Review 22(3), pp. 305-324. (10.1093/medlaw/fwt036)
- Harrington, J. 2014. Access to essential medicines in Kenya: Intellectual property, anti-counterfeiting and the right to health. In: Freeman, M., Hawkes, S. and Bennett, B. eds. Law and Global Health. Current Legal Issues., Vol. 16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688999.003.0007)
- Stuttaford, M., Al Makhamreh, S., Coomans, F., Harrington, J., Himonga, C. and Hundt, G. L. 2014. The right to traditional, complementary, and alternative health care. Global Health Action 7, article number: 24121.
- Harrington, J. and O'Hare, A. 2014. Framing the national interest: Debating intellectual property and access to essential medicines in Kenya. Journal of World Intellectual Property 17(1-2), pp. 16-33. (10.1002/jwip.12020)
2013
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2013. Satire and the politics of corruption in Kenya. Social and Legal Studies 22(1), pp. 3-23. (10.1177/0964663912458113)
- Harrington, J., Yu, P. and Aginam, O. 2013. Global governance of HIV/ AIDS: intellectual property and access to essential medicines. Edward Elgar.
2012
- Stuttaford, M., Harrington, J. and Lewando-Hundt, G. 2012. Sites for health rights: local, national, regional and global [Introduction]. Social Science & Medicine 74(1), pp. 1-5. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.09.038)
- Harrington, J. 2012. Time as a dimension of medical law. Medical Law Review 20(4), pp. 491-515. (10.1093/medlaw/fws009)
2010
- Harrington, J. and Stuttaford, M. 2010. Global health and human rights: legal and philosophical perspectives. Routledge.
2009
- Harrington, J. 2009. Visions of utopia: markets, medicine and the National Health Service. Legal Studies 29(3), pp. 376-399. (10.1111/j.1748-121X.2009.00126.x)
2008
- Harrington, J. 2008. Migration and access to health care in English medical law: a rhetorical critique. International Journal of Law in Context 4(4), pp. 315-335. (10.1017/S1744552309004029)
- Harrington, J. 2008. Law's faith in medicine. Medical Law International 9(4), pp. 357-374. (10.1177/096853320800900405)
- Harrington, J. 2008. Law, health and development. In: New Oxford Companion to Law. Oxford University Press
2007
- Harrington, J. 2007. Law, globalization and the NHS. Capital and Class 92, pp. 81-106.
2006
- Harrington, J. 2006. Globalization and English medical law: strains and contradictions. In: Bennett, B. and Tomossy, G. F. eds. Globalization and health: challenges for health law and bioethics., Vol. 27. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine Springer, pp. 169-185., (10.1007/1-4020-4196-9_11)
2005
- Harrington, J. 2005. Citizenship and the biopolitics of post-nationalist Ireland. Journal of Law and Society 32(3), pp. 424-449. (10.1111/j.1467-6478.2005.00331.x)
2004
- Harrington, J. 2004. Medical law and health care reform in Tanzania. Medical Law International 6(3), pp. 207-230. (10.1177/096853320400600302)
- Harrington, J. 2004. "Elective affinities" The art of medicine and the Common Law. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 55, pp. 259-276.
2003
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2003. 'Mind with mind and spirit with spirit': Lord Denning and African legal education. Journal of Law and Society 30(3), pp. 376-399. (10.1111/1467-6478.00262)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2003. The emergence of African law as an academic discipline in Britain. African Affairs 102(406), pp. 109-134. (10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a138813)
2002
- Harrington, J. 2002. The instrumental uses of autonomy: A review of AIDS law and policy in Europe. Social Science & Medicine 55(8), pp. 1425-1434. (10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00270-2)
- Harrington, J. 2002. 'Red in tooth and claw': The idea of progress in medicine and the common law. Social and Legal Studies 11(2), pp. 211-232. (10.1177/096466390201100203)
- Harrington, J. and Beale, H. 2002. Fraud, mistake and misrepresentation. In: Beale, H. et al. eds. Cases, materials and text on contract law. Casebooks on the common law of Europe Hart, pp. 333-429.
- Harrington, J. and Beale, H. 2002. Remedies for non-performance. In: Beale, H. et al. eds. Cases, materials and text on contract law. Casebooks on the common law of Europe Hart, pp. 659-878.
Articles
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2023. National Identities in Global Health. Kenya's Vaccine Diplomacy During COVID-19. African Affairs 122(488)
- Harrington, J. 2023. Between nation and empire: How the state matters in global health. Legal Studies (10.1017/lst.2022.48)
- Kimani-Murage, E. W., Osogo, D., Nyamasege, C. K., Igonya, E. K., Ngira, D. O. and Harrington, J. 2022. COVID- 19 and human right to food: Lived experiences of the urban poor in Kenya with the impacts of government’s response measures: A participatory qualitative study. BMC Public Health 22, article number: 1399. (10.1186/s12889-022-13638-3)
- Harrington, J. 2022. 'Bio-Imperialism. Disease, Terror and the Construction of National Fragility' by Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis [Book Review]. New Genetics and Society 41(2), pp. 176-178. (10.1080/14636778.2021.1997579)
- Harrington, J., Hughes-Moore, B. and Thomas, E. 2021. Towards a Welsh health law: devolution, divergence and values. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 72(S1)
- Harrington, J. 2021. Indicators, security, and sovereignty during Covid-19 in the Global South. International Journal of Law in Context 17(SI2), pp. 249-260. (10.1017/S1744552321000318)
- Harrington, J. 2021. ‘Choking the national demos’: research partnerships and the material constitution of global health. International Journal of Law in Context 17(S1), pp. 122-127. (10.1017/S1744552321000069)
- Harrington, J., Deacon, H. and Munyi, P. 2021. Sovereignty and development: law and the politics of traditional knowledge in Kenya. Critical African Studies 13(1), pp. 95-114. (10.1080/21681392.2021.1884108)
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2021. Global health, COVID-19 and the state in East Africa. Irish Studies in International Affairs 32(1), pp. 1-19. (10.3318/isia.2021.32.07)
- Harrington, J. 2020. #Weareone: blood donation and dreams of inclusion in Kenya. Africa 90, pp. 112-131. (10.1017/S0001972019000962)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2019. 'Africa needs many lawyers trained for the need of their peoples': Struggles over legal education in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana. American Journal of Legal History 59(2), pp. 149-177. (10.1093/ajlh/njz004)
- Harrington, J., Series, L. and Ruck-Keene, A. 2019. Law and rhetoric: Critical possibilities. Journal of Law and Society 46(2), pp. 302-327. (10.1111/jols.12156)
- Harrington, J. 2018. 'We can't wait for the bugs to spread': Rhetorics of time, space and biosecurity in global health law. Transnational Legal Theory 9(2), pp. 85-109. (10.1080/20414005.2018.1557395)
- Harrington, J. 2018. Governing traditional medicine in Kenya: Problematization and the role of the constitution. African Studies 77(2), pp. 223-239. (10.1080/00020184.2018.1452856)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2018. Judicial review and the future of UK development assistance: on the application of O v Secretary of State for International Development (2014). Legal Studies 38(2), pp. 320-335. (10.1017/lst.2018.4)
- Harrington, J. 2018. The time and place of rhetoric: a response. Law and Humanities 12(1), pp. 111-115. (10.1080/17521483.2018.1462293)
- Manji, A. and Harrington, J. 2017. The limits of socio-legal radicalism: social and legal studies and third world scholarship. Social and Legal Studies 26(6), pp. 700-715. (10.1177/0964663917729874)
- Manji, A. and Harrington, J. 2016. Public interest litigation, social justice and the life of Pushpa Kapila Hingorani: an interview with Aman Hingorani. Feminist Legal Studies
- Harrington, J. 2015. Time and space in medical law: Building on Valverde's Chronotopes of Law. Feminist Legal Studies 23(3), pp. 361-367. (10.1007/s10691-015-9295-3)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2015. Restoring Leviathan? The Kenyan Supreme Court, constitutional transformation, and the presidential election of 2013. Journal of Eastern African Studies 9(2), pp. 175-192.
- Harrington, J. 2014. Of paradox and plausibility: the dynamic of change in medical law. Medical Law Review 22(3), pp. 305-324. (10.1093/medlaw/fwt036)
- Stuttaford, M., Al Makhamreh, S., Coomans, F., Harrington, J., Himonga, C. and Hundt, G. L. 2014. The right to traditional, complementary, and alternative health care. Global Health Action 7, article number: 24121.
- Harrington, J. and O'Hare, A. 2014. Framing the national interest: Debating intellectual property and access to essential medicines in Kenya. Journal of World Intellectual Property 17(1-2), pp. 16-33. (10.1002/jwip.12020)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2013. Satire and the politics of corruption in Kenya. Social and Legal Studies 22(1), pp. 3-23. (10.1177/0964663912458113)
- Stuttaford, M., Harrington, J. and Lewando-Hundt, G. 2012. Sites for health rights: local, national, regional and global [Introduction]. Social Science & Medicine 74(1), pp. 1-5. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.09.038)
- Harrington, J. 2012. Time as a dimension of medical law. Medical Law Review 20(4), pp. 491-515. (10.1093/medlaw/fws009)
- Harrington, J. 2009. Visions of utopia: markets, medicine and the National Health Service. Legal Studies 29(3), pp. 376-399. (10.1111/j.1748-121X.2009.00126.x)
- Harrington, J. 2008. Migration and access to health care in English medical law: a rhetorical critique. International Journal of Law in Context 4(4), pp. 315-335. (10.1017/S1744552309004029)
- Harrington, J. 2008. Law's faith in medicine. Medical Law International 9(4), pp. 357-374. (10.1177/096853320800900405)
- Harrington, J. 2007. Law, globalization and the NHS. Capital and Class 92, pp. 81-106.
- Harrington, J. 2005. Citizenship and the biopolitics of post-nationalist Ireland. Journal of Law and Society 32(3), pp. 424-449. (10.1111/j.1467-6478.2005.00331.x)
- Harrington, J. 2004. Medical law and health care reform in Tanzania. Medical Law International 6(3), pp. 207-230. (10.1177/096853320400600302)
- Harrington, J. 2004. "Elective affinities" The art of medicine and the Common Law. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 55, pp. 259-276.
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2003. 'Mind with mind and spirit with spirit': Lord Denning and African legal education. Journal of Law and Society 30(3), pp. 376-399. (10.1111/1467-6478.00262)
- Harrington, J. and Manji, A. 2003. The emergence of African law as an academic discipline in Britain. African Affairs 102(406), pp. 109-134. (10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a138813)
- Harrington, J. 2002. The instrumental uses of autonomy: A review of AIDS law and policy in Europe. Social Science & Medicine 55(8), pp. 1425-1434. (10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00270-2)
- Harrington, J. 2002. 'Red in tooth and claw': The idea of progress in medicine and the common law. Social and Legal Studies 11(2), pp. 211-232. (10.1177/096466390201100203)
Book sections
- Harrington, J. 2022. 'In my own village' chronotopes, governmentality and the changing regulation of traditional medicine in Kenya. In: Adelman, S. and Paliwala, A. eds. Beyond Law and Development: Resistance, Empowerment and Social Injustice. Routledge, pp. 257-277.
- Harrington, J. and Sekalala, S. 2020. Communicable diseases, health security and human rights: From AIDS to Ebola. In: Gostin, L. and Meier, B. M. eds. Foundations of Global Health and Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Harrington, J. 2015. Traditional medicine and the law in Kenya. In: McHale, J. V. and Gale, N. eds. Routledge Handbook on Law and Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Routledge, pp. 180-201.
- Harrington, J. 2014. Access to essential medicines in Kenya: Intellectual property, anti-counterfeiting and the right to health. In: Freeman, M., Hawkes, S. and Bennett, B. eds. Law and Global Health. Current Legal Issues., Vol. 16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688999.003.0007)
- Harrington, J. 2008. Law, health and development. In: New Oxford Companion to Law. Oxford University Press
- Harrington, J. 2006. Globalization and English medical law: strains and contradictions. In: Bennett, B. and Tomossy, G. F. eds. Globalization and health: challenges for health law and bioethics., Vol. 27. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine Springer, pp. 169-185., (10.1007/1-4020-4196-9_11)
- Harrington, J. and Beale, H. 2002. Fraud, mistake and misrepresentation. In: Beale, H. et al. eds. Cases, materials and text on contract law. Casebooks on the common law of Europe Hart, pp. 333-429.
- Harrington, J. and Beale, H. 2002. Remedies for non-performance. In: Beale, H. et al. eds. Cases, materials and text on contract law. Casebooks on the common law of Europe Hart, pp. 659-878.
Books
- Harrington, J. 2016. Towards a rhetoric of medical law. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
- Harrington, J., Yu, P. and Aginam, O. 2013. Global governance of HIV/ AIDS: intellectual property and access to essential medicines. Edward Elgar.
- Harrington, J. and Stuttaford, M. 2010. Global health and human rights: legal and philosophical perspectives. Routledge.
Monographs
- Nelken, D., Siems, M., Infantino, M., Genicot, N., Restrepo Amariles, D. and Harrington, J. A. 2020. Indicators, security and sovereignty during COVID-19 in the global south. Available at: https://cadmus.eui.eu//handle/1814/68835
Websites
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2021. Vaccine diplomacy and the agency of African States: what can we learn from Kenya?. [Online]. Nairobi, Kenya: IFRA. Available at: https://mambo.hypotheses.org/3158
- Harrington, J. and Ngira, D. 2021. Is Kenya ready? Human rights, COVID-19 and vaccine preparedness. [Online]. africanarguments.org: Royal African Society. Available at: https://africanarguments.org/2021/02/how-prepared-is-kenya-to-roll-out-covid-19-vaccines/
- Harrington, J., Thomas, E. and Hughes-Moore, B. 2021. Is there a Welsh health law? Values, divergence and devolution after COVID-19. [Online]. ukconstitutionallaw.org: United Kingdom Constitutional Law Association. Available at: https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2021/01/25/john-harrington-erin-thomas-and-barbara-hughes-moore-is-there-a-welsh-health-law-values-divergence-and-devolution-after-covid-19/
Research
John Harrington's research has been supported by the:
Aurelius Trust (Award for Constitution of Kenya Reform Commission Archiving Project)
Economic and Social Research Council (Seminar Series Award)
Arts and Humanities Research Council (Research Leave Fellowship)
European University Institute (Jean Monnet Fellowship)
Nuffield Foundation (Social Science Grant).
John Harrington's work can be grouped under three main themes:
1 Towards a Rhetoric of Medical Law
This project has developed a wholly innovative account of medical law as a rhetorical practice. Though a close reading of British case law, legislative debates and academic interventions across a range of substantive topics it defends the view that argumentation in medical law is always a matter of establishing the plausibility of particular legal outcomes within concrete social and political contexts.
The analysis is built on a combination of apporaches from rhetorical and cultural theory, law and literature, critical legal studies and Marxian political economy. As such it challenges the well established view that medical law is a subset of human rights law, or of bioethics, approaches which tend to abstract the development of the discipline from broader cultural, institutional and political changes.
It argues that medical law has been marked by a set of common sense assumptions (or 'topics') about the nature of medical work and the place of doctors and the National Health Service in the economy and society of post-war Britain. It tracks the rise and decline in plausibility of these topics relating this to changes in the structure of health care delivery and broader developments in British political economy.
This work was supported by a Research Leave Fellowship of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and papers from it have already appeared in the Medical Law Review, Legal Studies , Social and Legal Studies and the International Journal of Law in Context. A monograph entitled Toward a Rhetoric of Medical Law will be published by Routledge in 2016.
2 Global Health Law - National Contexts
This work in progress extends the critical and rhetorical methods outlined above in examining the process by which global health standards and norms are implemented, transformed and resisted in national jurisdictions, with a particular focus on East Africa.
The last decade and a half has seen a huge increase in regulatory activity in relation to health at international and regional levels. These developments are reflected in the emergence of global health law as an area of academic study. Less attention, however, has been paid to the impact of these new health-related regimes on national legal systems, and in particular on the processes by which they are received into developing country jurisdictions.
The project takes up this challenge, focussing on a number of subtanative areas of health policy reform in Kenya and drawing on extensive interviews with key policy makers, civil society groups, industry and the judiciary, as well as archival and other documentary sources, and primary legal materials.
It pays particular attention to the 'national' as ane enduring frame for debate about the legislative reform, litigation strategies, popular campaigning and lobbying work around global health issues. Early findings indicate the continued salience of 'national development' and the idiom of anti-colonial resistance in these reform processes.
Work on this project has been supported by the British Institute in Eastern Africa and papers have already appeared in the Journal of World Intellectual Property Law, Current Legal Issues and in the Routledge Handbook on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
3 Legal Education in Britain and Africa: Mobility and Modernity
The project examines links between legal education in newly independent African states and the rise of the Law in Context movement in Britain from the mid-1960s. It is being developed with Professor Ambreena Manji of Cardiff School of Law and Politics and builds on earlier work supported by an award from the Nuffield Trust and published in the Journal of Law and Society and African Affairs.
It follows the careers of a number of legal academics from the UK who took up their first teaching posts in newly founded African law schools in the 1960s. These young scholars returned to the UK to play a significant part in the founding of a 'radical generation' of law schools, including Warwick, Kent and Cardiff.
In teaching and scholarship they sought to breakwith the 'blackletter' doctrinal outlook associated predominantly with Oxford and Cambridge.
The project will locate the work of these scholars with reference to trends in the Anglo-American legal academy, and set their innovations, ideals and mentalities in the context of decolonization and post-war change in Britain and its African colonies.
A paper on the crisis in the Law School at the University of Ghana in the early 1960s is currently under preparation; and a developmental workshop on the project will be hosted by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, with the support of the Legal Education Research Network in December 2015.
4 Other Work
John Harrington's work on governance and constitutionalism in Kenya is also taken up in two recent papers - both with Manji - in the Journal of Eastern African Studies (on the Presidential election petition of 2013) and Social and Legal Studies (on anti-corruption governance).
He has also edited three collections in the broader area of global health law: Global Governance of HIV/ AIDS: Intellectual Property and Access to Essential Medicines (with Aginam and Yu) and Global Health and Human Rights: Legal and Philosophical Perspectives (with Stuttaford) and a special issue of Social Science and Medicine (with Stuttaford and Hundt).
Teaching
John Harrington's teaching is strongly informed by his research. He has pioneered the teaching of Global Health Law at masters level in the UK and as a Global Visting Scholar at the University of Melbourne . He designed and delivered health and human rights training as part of the collaborative PhD program in population and public health of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). His module on Global Health: Law and Governance is jointly taught to International Relations and Law students at masters level in Cardiff. Further teaching innovation and external teaching work is set out below.
Teaching Innovation
1 Global Justice Law Clinic
This ‘pro-bono’ programme, founded in 2015, enables Cardiff students to work with lawyers and global NGOs on securing cross-border accountability for human rights violations (eg. slum clearance in Kenya, mining industry security issues in Tanzania). One of only two such programmes in the UK it has been favourably mentioned by Baroness Hale, President of the UK Supreme Court (at the Society of Legal Scholars plenary 2017), and has resulted in myself and Professor Manji who runs it with me, being invited to address plenaries at the three main learned societies in law in the UK (ie SLS, ALT, SLSA) on innovation in legal education.
Key partners include Deighton Pierce Glynn (human rights solicitors, London and Bristol), Amnesty International (London and Nairobi), Hingorani Foundation (New Delhi), Open Society Institutes (London and New York), Legal and Human Rights Centre (Dar es Salaam) and Katiba - Constitution Institute (Nairobi), Rights and Accountability in Development (Oxford).
Students draft legal documents (eg complaints to EU Commission), conduct interviews with clients (eg in Tanzania) and prepare briefings for trial lawyers (eg UK tort and human rights case, and claim before African Court of Human and People’s Rights). Placements have been secured for students in New Delhi (eg. Indian Green Tribunal and Delhi Commission on Women’s Rights) and in Nairobi (eg International Commission of Jurists) with successful applications to Cardiff’s Global Opportunities scheme in 2017 and 2018.
2 Law and Literature: Sherman Theatre Collaboration
One of the few of its kind in UK Law Schools, engages undergraduate students in study of law as a form of performance and with representations of law in culture. Since introducing it in 2015 I have developed a partnership with the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, whereby my teaching is integrated with one of the company’s major new productions each year (ie. Love, Lies and Videotape in 2016 and The Cherry Orchard in 2017). Students do extended seminar work on the literary, legal and political issues in the drama, before attending performances and participating in post-production discussions at the Theatre with actors and directors. Follow-up classes on performance in law and on stage are then co-taught with the Sherman’s Community Theatre staff.
3 Global Problems and Legal Theory
Based on a radical overhaul of traditional Legal Theory teaching, this module introduces students to key philosophical debates (eg. the nature of law, limits to human rights, and historic justice) through concrete problems in world society (eg. transitional justice in South Africa, global intellectual property rights, and the UK’s development aid commitment). Taught in a flipped format, with classes led by student-teams this module is delivered in collaboration with the Welsh Centre for International Affairs at the Temple of Peace. As with Law and Literature, student feedback praises the innovative mode of delivery, practical experience and engaging content. This module was the only one to be mentioned expressly by Cardiff law students in the National Student Survey (2017).
External Teaching
Global Law Academy Tilburg University (2018)
Global Health Law, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (contributing new modules for on-line course) (2017)
Scholarship on Teaching
My research portfolio includes a sustained engagement with issues in legal education. In earlier papers written with Professor Ambreena Manji and published in Africanist and law journals, I have explored the moments in the history of legal education in Africa and the lessons for current work on decolonizing the curriculum. Recent work includes a history of conflicts over legal training in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana (American Journal of Legal History) and an pleaaargues for a cosmopolitan renewal in UK legal education (UCD Working Papers series).
Biography
John Harrington is Professor of Global Health Law at Cardiff University and Director of the ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Partnership.
He holds degrees in law from Trinity College, Dublin (LL.B.) and Oxford University (BCL).
Before moving to Cardiff he held appointments as Professor of Law, University of Liverpool (2004-14), Lecturer in Law, Warwick University (1994-2004) and Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Law at the Free University of Berlin (1992-4).
He was director of Liverpool University’s Institute of Medicine Law and Bioethics (2006-10), a Global Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne (2006) and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy (2001-2). He has also held research fellowships at the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Cape Town, at the Wissenschaftszentrum fuer Sozialforschung (WZB) in Berlin and the Institute of Health, Warwick University.
More recently he was Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute in Eastern Africa and a Visiting Researcher at the African Population and Health Research Centre, both Nairobi (2010-14).
He speaks English, Irish and German (fluent), French (advanced/ B2) Italian, Kiswahili (intermediate) and Welsh (beginner).
Honours and awards
Runner-up, Socio-Legal Theory and History Book Prize of the Social and Legal Studies Association for Towards a Rhetoric of Medical Law (2017).
Academic positions
2013- Professor of Global Health Law, Cardiff University
2004-2013 Professor of Law, University of Liverpool
1994-2004 Lecturer in Law, University of Warwick
1192-1994 Lecturer, Department of Comparative Law, Freie Universität Berlin
Committees and reviewing
Journals and Learned Societies
Journal of Law and Society - Editorial Board: duties include advancing global south publishing initiative within the journal (from 2017).
Socio-Legal Studies Association UK - Executive Council: duties include chairing seminar competition and Open Access sub-committees; membership of article prize and equality and committee (from 2017).
Welsh Centre for International Affairs - serving on Legal Affairs Committee (from 2016).
African Studies Association UK judging committee for Audrey Richards prize, awarded biennially to the best PhD thesis (2018).
Refereeing for journals/ publishers inlcuding: Medical Law Review; Modern Law Review, Legal Studies, Medical Anthropology; Health Care Analysis; British Medical Journal; Law and Humanities, Law, Culture and Humanities; Edward Elgar, Cambridge University Press, Hart Publishing.
Funding: Reviewing Work
Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College member (from 2016)
Economic and Social Research Council Global Challenges Research Fund Peer Review College member (from 2016).
Reviewing individual applications for Medical Research Council, Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust.
Supervisions
I welcome inquiries about supervision in all areas of my research and teaching practice. These include: global health law, health and human rights; law and literature/; legal rhetoric; law and colonialism; legal education (including clinic); philosophy of law.
My 8 current PhD students are co-supervised with at Cardiff, Bristol and Southampton. They are variously funded by Commonwealth Scholarships, ESRC 1+3 awards, AHRC Research Studentships and Vice-Chancellors Studentships (Cardiff). All are supported by the research community of Cardiff Law and Global Justice.
Their research topics include:
- Islamic tax, human rights and health care funding;
- Indigenous communities and access to health care in Kenya;
- Framing international debates in child labour;
- Doubles fiction and criminal responsibility in English law;
- Theories of global justice and asylum procedure in the UK;
- Protecting the interests of surrogates in Indian law;
- Spatial justice, participation and health care in a Nairobi settlement;
- The 'hostile environment' and the UK border.
-